


Split

by White_Rabbits_Clock



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Cap Critical, F/M, Gen, In this essay, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Salty Tony, Team Iron Man, The idea that Steve went back, Tony Stark Lives, and didn't change anything, and lived a full life, do not copy to another site, is bullshit., slight AU, we will fix said bullshit., with peggy goddamn carter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-06-25 15:21:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19748446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/White_Rabbits_Clock/pseuds/White_Rabbits_Clock
Summary: When Tony Stark died, his soul was transferred into a new body so that he could come back and fix the absolute fucking mess that Steve Rogers has made of the timeline.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I want to give a shout out to any of the folks who waited five months for me to write something I actually wanted to post. Sorry it took so long. As promised, this is a completed work, guys. Update day will be monday, not Friday, because I work in a bar, and Fridays are busy ass days for me now that everyone else's weekend is my week. 
> 
> So this story works on the idea that souls can be separated from bodies, and therefore it is possible that Tony died but unexpectedly had his soul transferred, leading to the shenanigans in this story. That is the slight AU bit. Everything that happened in the movies happened in this fic. Tony is salty, but then again, when I write, him, when is he not?

They’d hoped for peace for a while. Between the death of Tony Stark, the redemption of the Rogues, and the return of half the population, the world over had been left reeling. Stark Industries was busy pushing out the latest round of innovations to resources and energy. 

Bruce and Hulk know the work Tony had already been planning to that end has gone a long way in keeping the company afloat and at the forefront of the Adjustment (because that’s what they’re calling it) efforts, but the pit in their stomach gets deeper every time credit is given to the late inventor. 

Why hadn’t  _ they _ thought of wiping out Thanos and his army? Sure, the Reverse Snap had cost them the use of their arm for a decent amount of time, but they would have healed, and Tony would have been alive. Instead, they were so focused on something they knew wasn’t going to work that it took Tony’s life to finish what they’d started. 

They want to scream at the fates they now know exist. They want to ask them what the hell they were thinking. Hadn’t Tony already given enough? Didn’t he deserve to go home to Pepper and Morgan and just be retired? Didn’t he deserve this after all that the rest of them were gifted?

Didn’t he deserve that family he wanted Bruce and Hulk to be a part of, once upon a time?

(Not everyone get what they deserve), Hulk grunts. 

_ I know. I just. I hate that I wasn’t there for him. _

(Tin Man at peace now. Be happy), he answers. 

Just as Bruce and Hulk goes to respond, their communicator goes off. 

“Hulk?” Steve’s voice asks from the other end of the comm unit, “you’ve been requested for emergency battle in the Harbor. We’ve got a group of unknown hostiles. They’ve already killed three people.”

…

Bruce and Hulk grip the handholds as the mouth of the quinjet opens. It sits low enough in the air that their leap won’t damage the harbor. The wood under their feet shakes, but does not give when they land on it. The monsters are big, about six feet tall and four feet wide. They’re multi limbed, multi-mouthed, and multi-eyed. Their hides are slick with sea water, and underneath the shine Bruce and Hulk can see a mottled patchwork of blues, greys, purples, and greens. 

“Okay…” Bruce and Hulk murmur. The first creature opens up it’s main mouth and screeches, and that’s when Bruce and Hulk realize that those jaws unfold like flowers. 

“Talk to me, Hulk,” Steve says in his ear. He’d taken a job as a Controller for the Avengers. Rather than go back into retirement now that Peggy’s dead, he’d eleted to go to work for the UN, which just so happened to want experienced people manning the Super Unit Dispatch Hub, or SUDH. 

“I’m have eyes on the hostiles. They appear aquatic, and are built like pitbulls, only four times the size,” they answer. The creature doesn’t seem to like his talking, because it charges at him with an unholy screech. Bruce and Hulk dodge around it, and get a look at its backside. 

“I’m seeing spikes down the spine, assuming they have a spine. Tail looks like a whip and is just as painful to get hit with,” Bruce and Hulk continue. The creature turns around and jumps at them. “Multilayered mouths.”

“What’s our best bet on containment?” Steve asks in their ear. Bruce and Hulk punch it, landing a hit straight to its jaw, ripping the whole thing loose. The creature drops to the ground. After a moments observation, Bruce and Hulk sigh. 

“Blunt force.” 

This is going to be a long day. 

Four hours later, in which they were informed that the back up teams and the back up’s back up teams were unavailable, Bruce and Hulk finally dispatch the last of a dozen creatures. Herding them away from civilians to a central killing zone was what took up most of the work, but the property damage was nil, and, excluding those three initial casualties that Bruce and Hulk wasn’t responsible for, death toll is zero. A perfect score, by all accounts. 

They don’t feel so perfect standing there in front of the Accords Counsel. They approve (of course they approve) of Bruce and Hulk’s actions. They like their consciousness of all parts of the situation, and not just the most demanding parts.

But the body count is up to three before Bruce and Hulk were even called in. 

That isn’t perfection. 

“Dr. Banner, please prepare a report from your autopsies and turn it in as soon as possible,” Dr. Halvorsen says. As one of the leading names in human-alien integration and the person most closely associated with the Asgardians, Bruce and Hulk have more respect for her than they do for most of the people in this room, including Thaddeus Ross.

“Try not to poison yourself again,” the man in question says, and his expression is light, his tone teasing, but Bruce and Hulk know that Ross trying to get under their skin. A smattering of laughter echoes around the table. 

Wouldn’t it be funny if Hulk got an upgrade?

(Ignore them. Stupid joke.)

_ I know. _

…

He appears in their midst like a spectre in a graveyard. Which is to say, creepy as fuck and cause for immediate upset. 

Bruce and Hulk and their two lab assistants, Peter Parker and a woman named Riri Williams, are quiet and ready to begin the monsters’ autopsies in their hazmat gear. They’d taken the first specimen out of containment and gotten samples for testing. Bruce and Hulk move forward to make the first cut on the creature when it all goes to hell. 

He’d been dead way too long for this to make sense. No one saw how he got in, and everyone, by which Bruce and Hulk means himself and the guards outside the room, are up in arms before the shock goes away. 

As for his part, Tony amicably raises his hands in surrender, playful grin on his face. They “subdue” him, which in this case means he didn’t resist arrest. It’s a short walk to the hazmat containment units, but all of those are being used by the creatures. So instead Tony Stark makes the long and uncomfortable trek to the Unknown Enhancement containment units. Bucky Barnes had been in one of these, but his escape had inspired an overhaul of the design (patented Stark Tech). Bruce and Hulk hope it will actually hold him.

(Just take Tin-Man home. Keep safe.)

( _ We can’t do that. We don’t even know if this guy is Tony. He could be an imposter. Probably is an imposter. _ ) 

After a quick emergency meeting, in which Ross shoves his way onto this new project, it’s concluded that Bruce and Hulk will stay on this new project, and that someone else would be brought in for the alien dissection if he couldn’t get back to it. Tony, for his part, appears remarkably unconcerned, even when Bruce and Hulk are controlling the amount of green in their eyes because-

“I’ll have you dissected just like we dissected your precious code after Ultron!”

(Kill Ross. Free Tin Man)

_ We have to make sure he is Tin Man first. _

“You can try,” Tony muses. He smiles like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth and tilts his head in an appealing way. He looks a lot younger than he did a year and four months ago. “But you’re not gonna like it.”

“Is that a threat, Stark?” Ross asks. His voice is dangerously calm again. Bruce and Hulk know the reaction; Ross thinks he’s found himself a foothold in this newer, younger version of the Tony Stark Enigma. 

“Of course not. It would hardly help my case, would it? Threatening a…  _ national figure _ of sorts.” Ross goes redder as he and Bruce and Hulk all hear the jab for what it is. The man used to be known as a hero, or at least as the solution to the Hulk. Ross wasn’t afraid to go head to head with the rage monster, after all. 

But decades of bad behavior and paranoid ravings, an estranged daughter and unscrupulous practices accumulating in the Raft lawsuit (he’d lost rights to the whole thing) had rendered Ross a bad taste in the mouth of America. He is still a public figure, but like ugly, leaked nudes, it wasn’t a good thing. The only reason he still has a job is because the military has kept a tight leash on him for the last five years. 

“No, I thought I would just warn you. Run your tests, but I’m here for a reason, and you don’t get to know it until I’m out of these handy-dandy little cuffs,” Tony finishes with a smile. Bruce and Hulk finds themselves smiling back without meaning to. Like the champion of playing his cards close to his chest that he is, Tony doesn’t acknowledge what he saw. But he definitely saw it. 

True to his word, Tony submits to every test they wanted to take, and does not appear overly worried about being shoved into a containment unit. Though watched like a hawk, he does not seem even the least bit concerned about being left alone to stew in his thoughts until the results of the tests were confirmed. 

Which is how, four days later, Bruce and Hulk find themself outside the unit, looking in at a version of Tony Stark that is younger by about twenty five years, and wondering how the hell it all happened. 

“And he just appeared?” Scott asks. Besides him, Thaddeus Ross reaches up to rub at his nose underneath the glasses he’d started to wear constantly. Bruce and Hulk regret not having enough leverage against him to kick him out of their little investigation. Until he’s no longer the military liason to the Accords, Bruce and Hulk, like everyone else, are stuck with him. 

“Like a hologram. He hasn’t said a word about why he’s here or what he wants, though he certainly does talk. DNA tests confirm he is, in fact, the Tony Stark.” Bruce and Hulk answer.

“So what does he want?” Scott asks. 

“We don’t know,” Ross says. He slides his hands into the pockets of his pants and rocks forward onto his toes. “My guess, though? You all were just playing around with Time. He’s probably from the past, since he is, linguistically, only a little different from the Tony we all know.”

“And I’m supposed to find out the real answer… despite the fact that we barely even knew each other,” Scott surmises. Doubt is written all over his face. Bruce and Hulk can’t help but smile. If Scott fails (and he will fail, because there’s one thing they all hate, and it’s Ross). Bruce and Hulk’s Tony wouldn’t bother revealing any information with Ross watching. 

“If at all possible. He’s running circles around our interrogators and, unfortunately, since it’s very likely that this is actually Tony Stark and the Geneva Convention did indeed happen, we need to step very carefully,” Ross says. He sounds so… grudging. 

“Why not just send Bruce in?” Scott asks. Ross gives the most disbelieving snort. 

“Right. Put the rage monster in with the chatter box. Sounds safe.”

“Just like the raft, eh?” Bruce asks conspiratorially. Ross drops the incredulous look for an angry one. Scott grows pensive. He, evidently, remembers his time in the Raft as clear as day. 

“Right then. Onward and upward?” 

At Ross’ grudging nod, Scott opens the door. 

Bruce and Hulk sigh. On the other side of the window, in the interrogation room, Tony stares off into space, apparently still unbothered by the manacles and the security he’s found himself subject to. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce puts the pieces together but that gets him no closer to a solution.

“Come on, man. I’m trying to make this easier on you.”

Tony smiles beautifically at Scott, and then his eyes slide past him and to the window. 

“I just… can’t stand the idea of eavesdroppers, you know? It’s such an awful feeling to have a guy with a history of exploiting the most vulnerable of society for his own gain watching me, waiting to see if I’ll give up the ghost.” 

Bruce and Hulk snort quietly on the other side of the window. Ross sends them a glare. Bruce and Hulk shrug placidly at him. Tony’s not wrong. Even if it isn’t their Tony. 

“Looks like you’re the problem now, Ross.”

“Man, I don’t know what happens to you if you don’t cooperate,” Scott says. His voice is a little distorted, but Bruce and Hulk think they hear a thread of desperation in there somewhere. The Raft was not kind to any of the Rogues. 

Tony’s smile doesn’t change. 

“According to chapter five, section three, clause six of the e-t agreement, signed by all everyone who put their signature on the original Accords- that includes us, by the way- ‘a non-hostile being of unknown origin, species, or travel may not be subject to cruel or unusual punishment’. You say you don’t know who or what I am, and I know you have no clue how I got here. Ross and his little rinky-dink posse of xenophobes can suck a fat one. I’m untouchable until I cause undue harm.”

“Really?” Scott asks, eyebrows up. 

“Oh yeah. And I’m telling you, and Bruce, and whoever else hears this conversation: I don’t work with Ross. You want my knowledge, you get rid of him. Now. He can hear it second hand like everyone else,” Tony bites at him. Scott… looks a little cowed, Bruce and Hulk can see. He looks like he’s seen a ghost. 

“Oh god, it really is you,” Scott breathes out. “Oh my god.”

…

The counsel is, understandably, put out by Tony’s stand. Well, some of them are put out. Others, like Ramonda, Queen Mother of Wakanda and their pick for their Accords seat, are quietly overjoyed. 

“If this is indeed Tony Stark as we knew him,” Ramonda ventures after Bruce and Hulk and Scott bring their update before the counsel, “then acquiescing can only help our cause. If the Tony we know is alive and well, he wouldn’t be back without a very good reason.”

“We still don’t know if this is actually Stark, and even if it was, he doesn’t just get to decide who’s going to be on his investigation!” Ross insists. Bruce and Hulk shrug a shoulder. 

“He’s right, though. You’ve never been a friend to mutants or… or supers or Tony himself. I wouldn’t want you on the investigation team either.” 

Ross gives Bruce a look of pure, undiluted scorn. 

“Sorry I hurt your feelings, Hulk, but we’re not talking about pulled pigtails on a playground. This is, at best, a younger, calmer Tony Stark. At worse, this is a-

“Dr. Banner to the roof. Paging Doctor Banner to the roof. A code green has been requested on Pearl st., near the courthouse.”

“If I may,” Bruce and Hulk murmur. With a nod to the assembled politicians, they turn and stride out the door. A smile flits across his face as he hears Ramonda start back up. Some of the things she’s mentioning are familiar, and Bruce and Hulk realizes its a list of Ross’ crimes. 

…

“Hulk, we’ve called in Cage and Danvers for you. For now, we want you just contain them. We’re going to try to capture one live,” Steve says on the comms. The jet drops him right on top of the monsters’ drop sight. 

It’s the same one’s from last time. Bruce and Hulk let out a sigh. 

“Can someone tell Stranger Things that we don’t need their damn extras?” Bruce asks. 

“Cut the chatter,” Danver says, and Bruce and Hulk have a startling, painful moment of when it was Tony making the jokes, and Steve telling him to stop. 

“Alright, well, those mouths open up into larger mouths.” Just then, one of the creatures bit at a stop sign, bending it. 

“Duly noted. Alright, Hulk, I want you to work the containment units. I’ll keep them from running, and Cage can herd.”

“Got it,” Bruce and Hulk say. The containment units look like miniature yellow barns. Their sides are decorated with the Hazmat symbol and a simple drawing of a sword crossing a book- the symbol of the UN Accords Counsel. Each container only has one vault-like door. All in all, the whole thing is as stable and secure as a prison. Even from this distance, Hulk can hear the hiss of pneumatic locks as the containers open up. 

“Here we go again,” Bruce and Hulk mutter to themselves. They drop down to lower their gravity, hands in front of them. Danvers fires a couple of shots at a few of the more exploratory monsters. They don’t seem to like the heat. 

The monsters turn and run the other direction, directly towards Cage. One of the monsters strikes at Cage, who lets out a shout when he jumps back. The thing flinches. 

“Did y’all see that?” Cage asks as he advances. Another of the monsters is advancing. 

“Yeah. Sensitive to what? Heat and noise?” Bruce and Hulk guesses. 

“Looks like it,” Danvers agrees. She lets off another, smaller blast, meant to keep the creatures from advancing, but not necessarily to drive them Bruce and Hulk’s way. 

“I smell a plan,” Cage says with a chuckle. He lets out another shout, and the monster flinches back, then runs directly towards Bruce and Hulk. They take Cage’s example and let out their own roar when the monster gets close enough. The thing veers hard, right into an open hazmat cage. The door slams shut, and Bruce and Hulk let out a little laugh.

“One down… seventeen to go.”

…

They take Ross off the Stark Issue, as it’s come to be known. It was welcome news when Bruce and Hulk walked into the hearing chamber. The numbers of most attacks hurt to hear. 

Sixteen people died before anyone was called in this time. Bruce and Hulk try not to blame the Accords Counsel. There’s only so fast anyone can respond, and the damage monsters appearing out of what looks to be a portal in the middle of a crowded street create can only be mitigated so much. Sixteen isn’t a bad number, given the amount of people on the street and in the buildings. But sixteen is more than zero. 

But then they’d given Bruce the okay and a “good job” and a “we’ll try to have you back to dissections soon. For now, you’ve been nominated to head of the Stark Issue”, and the feeling of something finally going right- even if it’s just a little thing- is a relief. 

But that was three hours ago. This is now. Fresh out of the shower and a cup of coffee, with all their paperwork filled and filed correctly, the hopeless feeling he gets when he thinks about all the issues in his life right now come right back. Tony Stark is still sitting there, placid and unmoved by anything, the mirth in his eyes at his own little private joke as daunting as ever. Bruce sucks in a breath, reminds himself that he has to report to the counsel eventually, and goes in. 

“Hey, Tony.”

“Bruce! My favorite interrogator. How was your day? Did you drink enough caffeine? Water? Smoke enough bowls to stay this calm?”

“Just… stop, Tony.” 

Tony falls silent. The joke is still running in his head. Bruce and Hulk set down the file in their hands and slide it across the table. Tony’s hands, cuffed to the table as they are, struggle to fully open the file, but when he does, the stillness on his features convince Bruce that this is, indeed, Tony Stark. 

“We had a funeral for you. Me, Pepper, Morgan, everybody. We… we had a wake for you. Your body is currently six feet deep on the property you were raising Morgan on, and I know for a fact that Pepper takes coffee out there every day or so and drinks it in your honor. And now you’re back in this… body that couldn’t possibly be yours. Just sitting here. Not trying to see them. Not trying to ask about Spiderman. Nothing. Just… hurting me with your goddamn jokes. So if you’re the real Tony Stark, why the fuck are you alive?” Bruce and Hulk asks, voice low and growly. 

After a few more moments of observing the large, glossy photograph of everyone who went to the funeral and wake, minus a few who didn’t want to be seen, Tony closes the file and looks up. 

“I’ve come to fix a problem. Tell me, Bruce. Hulk. Whoever you are more right now.”

“We’re one in the same.”

“Excellent. What happens if we don’t put the stones back when we’re supposed to?” Tony asks.

“The timelines split off, one of them ending a lot sooner and a lot more disastrously then the other.”

“Uh huh. And did the stones get put back?” Bruce and Hulk find themselves nodding without fully realizing it.

“Did… everything get put back the way it was? Because events that affect the location and use of the infinity stones are just as likely to cause issues.” 

Old Steve, sitting on the bench, watching the lake. (I don’t think I will.)

“No,” Bruce and Hulk say, barely breathing anymore. Tony gives Bruce a thin, sharp smile. 

“Those monsters you fought this morning? They’re going to keep coming. You won’t be able to glean enough information to stop them, no matter how many dissections you do. Whatever happened after my death has to be fixed, or you all die.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t exist in time anymore. That’s why I’m here now. If you don’t fix this issue, I’ll bail before the situation gets too bad. And then you’ll be left with an even worse world than the one I died to prevent.” 

For a moment, Bruce and Hulk cannot break their gaze with Tony. His eyes are deep, burning pools of anger and of pain, and Bruce remembers that dying would have cut him off from his daughter forever.

“I have to go.”

…

Steve likes to get up in the mornings and watch the dawn. He likes to sit in the lawn chairs on the roof of the Compound and drink his coffee, already dressed for the day. 

“Steve,” Bruce and Hulk say as they open the door to the roof. 

“Come have a seat. The good part’s not going to happen for a few more minutes.”

“I don’t have time for this. Steve, who did you marry? What did you do when you went back in time?” Steve turns those eyes, still a brilliant blue, on him, expression shuttered. 

“I don’t want to talk about that, Bruce. You know that.”

“Steve, it’s not about what you want. I want to be meditating right now. Tony Stark doesn’t want to be here at all.” 

Steve stiffens. 

“What do you mean, Tony Stark?”

“He’s back from the dead. Says that changing the past too much can have just as bad an effect as screwing with the Infinity Stones. I need to know what you did.” 

Steve’s mouth tightens. It’s been a year and a half, and he has yet to tell anyone what really happened when he deliberately missed his ride home. 

“Listen, Bruce. Tony has always been… adamant that things go his way. There was never a time when he wasn’t stubborn.” 

Anger, red hot and sudden, shade Bruce and Hulk’s vision red for a long moment before they dial it back. 

“You act like you know him but you know what? It’s obvious you didn’t care to know.” 

“Now that’s not true-”

“It is. We never talked about what happened with Ultron, mostly because I didn’t want to face up to my own failings in that entire disaster but you know what? Let’s talk. You ordered us to study the staff. We were running tests on it. To see if it could be integrated into Tony’s current projects, yes, but also just to find out how it works and you know what? We failed. The preliminary tests we were running did not work. All we fucking learned after three days is that the code is too unique from anything we have to actually integrate. 

“And you know what? It was only after we were gone that the Mind Stone- a known, magical entity whose full abilities we still don’t know- woke up and integrated itself. We didn’t know it was sentient. Should we have maybe been more careful? Yes. Should one of us have recognized the fever-like state we were in as unnatural? Yes. Should we have stepped down after wanda’s fuckery? Definitely. 

“But we didn’t, because we were more influenced by the mind stone after finding it than we were on the helicarrier in 2012. And then Thor held him up by the neck and none of us did. A. thing. I left him.” Bruce and Hulk’s voice cuts out as they turn away from Steve and his stubborn fucking expression to look out over the rising sun, ruined now by the conversation.

“To deal with it all. I don’t know why I was surprised to find that you all had stopped listening to him just because you could. But you did, and you added Wanda onto the team, despite the fact that she’d already forced her way into our heads and fucked with our minds. She was a deciding factor in Ultron’s birth and had you bothered to listen, you’d have known that,” Bruce and Hulk bite out. The steady stream of anger, tapped now after so many years of ignoring it, grows to a raging river inside them. 

“You lied to him. About his parents. About SHIELD.”

“SHIELD was corrupt.”

“You didn’t care or think about how any of the shit you pulled would affect Tony and you were more interested in his money than you were in anything about him. Now he’s come back from the dead to fix an issue with our timeline,” Bruce snaps out. Steve flinches. 

“There’s only a handful of issues I can think of that would have come from the fuckery with Thanos and you’re the biggest one.” 

Bruce and Hulk squat, so that his head is only about a foot over Steve’s.

“So please, oh wise and wonderful leader. What did you do?” 

“I. I married Peg,” Steve says. It bursts out of him like he is a soda can under too much pressure. “That’s it. I just went back in time and married Peggy Carter, okay?”

“And then what?”

“That’s it! We got married! We lived life as a couple and she is still dead right now so I would fucking appreciate it if you could leave me to the last of the life that I deserve!” Steve snarls out as he finally turns to face Bruce and Hulk entirely. Their face twists into an ugly scowl. 

“Deserve? Steve, no one gets what they _ deserve _ . Morgan doesn’t have a dad right now. Day in and day out, I am stuck working with goddamn Thaddeus Ross. Sam is running around dealing with the bullshit currently associated with Captain America that is mostly your doing.” The two stare at each other again for a moment before something dawns on Hulk and Bruce. 

“Did you even try to save Bucky or did you just… let him go?” Bruce and Hulk breathe the green away while Steve stares at them, hurt and anger in his face.

“I belong back there. I don’t belong here. I never goddamn did. Can you really blame me for trying to get that back?” Steve asks. His voice has gone soft and pained. He needs Bruce to understand why he can’t give that up. He got everything he wanted, safe in the knowledge that it all works out in the end, and he can’t just-

“Yes. That was the one rule. The one, single goddamn rule. Don’t. Upset. The timeline. And you went in and fucked around with the life of the woman who… the woman who started SHIELD. Did you stay friends with Howard, too?” 

Steve’s got his mouth open like a fish, prepared to argue some more (it’s his. It’s always been his. This time he’s going to keep it.) when Bruce and Hulk’s phone goes off. 

“Dr. Banner,” Bruce and Hulk answer. They press the phone to their ear. “On my way.”

“This is not over,” Bruce and Hulk say before they turn away. A moment later, Steve’s own phone goes off, summoning him to the Control Room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okie dokie guys! I didn't even realize it was wednesday and I hadn't posted yet lol. I was working a double monday. Like always, comments and concrit are appreciated. On to the good stuff!  
> I've opened up a prompt box! It's literally called "the prompt box", and it's the newest work I have. all you have to do is go to the prompt box and leave your prompt as a comment on the first chapter. If I'm not going to write it, I'll let you know, but if I am going to write it, the prompts will go up in chronological order beginning in early October.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ross is up to his old tricks again. Tony's up to his new ones.   
> Trigger Warning: Attempted kidnapping.

“Holy shit,” Bruce and Hulk mutters. The creatures are back. 

“Headcount is seventy four, Hulk. And rising.”

“Where are they coming from?” Bruce and Hulk ask as they land a hundred yards away.

“We don’t know.”

…

The door to Tony’s containment room opens up, though Tony himself doesn’t react. 

“You think you’ve got us all fooled, don’t you?” Ross asks. Tony keeps his eyes on his hands where they’ve been cuffed to the table. “But you won’t fool me. Even if you are Stark, well. He and I have a bit of a grudge match.”

“Do what you will, Ross.” Tony looks up with a beatific smile on his face. “‘Cause I’ve had much worse than you.” 

Ross’ face twitches, anger swirling in his eyes. 

“You’ll soon find yourself mistaken. A… vocal minority finds that your stay here has been too comfortable. You can either give up what you know, or we can take you far, far away, out of eyesight of the do-gooders clogging up the system, and then you can spill.” 

Tony’s smile widens into a hungry grin. 

“Fucking try it. The moment you touch me, it’s all over. You know, I… did some snooping- hope you don’t mind- and I just wanted to let you know that Betty is ashamed of you. In fact, she still loves Bruce, at least a little bit. If given half a chance, they’d be lifelong friends, at least. Imagine having to give her away to the guy you spent half your life chasing down.”

Rage sparks in Ross’ eye and he lands a punch square to Tony’s jaw. He doesn’t go far because of the cuffs, but he does try. Ross turns towards the doorway and speaks to the soldiers outside. 

“Pack him up.” 

In a flash, they’re unlocking the cuffs and hauling him upright. They fix a set of immobility braces on him, locking him down from neck to toes and move him onto what looks like an electronic, modified dolly. Tony just smiles around the blood as they wheel him out into the hallway. 

“Secretary Ross?” someone’s aide asks. “Where are you going with Mr. Stark?” The man who appears in the hallway is a young one, fresh faced and a little bit scared. 

“He’s been cleared for transport to the Raft. We’re taking him,” Ross says easily. Tony can tell that no one was supposed to be down here. After all, it’s after hours, and there is a surveillance blackout in this part of the building. Or at least, there was supposed to be. 

“No… he hasn’t. In fact, his entire case was handed over to Dr. Banner. Please return Mr. Stark to the room you took him from,” the aide says. Ross’ face pinches up, and he stalks up to the man. 

“Listen, Mr… Gage. You haven’t been here very long. You should know that sometimes, the paperwork gets done later.”

“That’s not how it works with possible interdimensional beings, Mr. Ross. Please return Mr. Stark to the place you took him from. I’m reporting you.” Gage pulls out his phone, and, as Ross reaches out to grab it, Tony laughs. And laughs. And laughs until tears are streaming down his face. All eyes turn to him as his the sounds fall from his lips and echo down the hallway cement hallway. There’s a door to the outside a hundred feet away, and a van that will steal Tony away forever. 

Tony tries to communciate with his eyes that Gage should run. When Ross has moved right next to Tony (probably in order to slap the shit out of him), it seems to click that Gage is in a lot of danger, and he’s gone. A guard moves to follow, but Ross calls him back. They don’t have time for Gage right now.

“What’s funny?” Ross growls at him. 

“You. You… really thought… I was here because I had to be?” 

Ross rolls his eyes. 

“Gag him.” 

They make it out to the van without further incident. As they’re driving down the road, towards Ross’ torture nest or whatever he calls it these days, the sound of sirens goes up outside the van. Tony smiles and closes his eyes. 

The thing about being held in an electronic prison, or, in this case, an electronic full-body cuff, is that if you happen to be a little bit magic right then, well… The cuffs unlock as the van comes to a halt. The soldier looks at him. Tony smiles as the gag falls to the ground.

“Now listen,” he says quietly. “You’re going to let me go, or I’m going to let me go, but if you let me go, you don’t go to the hospital,” he says. The cuffs unlock themselves, and Tony takes a step forwards, down off the dolly and onto the van floor. The soldier nods. 

“Excellent.” Outside, Tony can hear Ross talk. Tony reaches for the backdoors, which swing wide with a distinctive thud. An officer comes around to see what’s going on. 

“Who are you?” the officer asks. His eyes slide past Tony, to the soldiers and the body cuffs.

“Nobody important. Just a lowly ole’ kidnappee… freeing themself,” Tony says with a smile as he takes a step down. It spooks the officer. 

“Sir, stop,” he orders. Black armor surfaces like mold to cover every inch of Tony’s skin.

“Nah. Got a lunch date.”

…

The battle is in full swing. The original seventy four monsters have been dead for ten minutes, but the number of living monsters has raised to two hundred and three.

“Tell me we’ve made some progress!” Bruce and Hulk say into his comms. 

“Negative. We’re not getting any readings and nothing new is stopping them!” Carol calls out.

“What an awful thing, starting a party without the main guest,” a new voice says on the comms.

“Tony?” Bruce and Hulk asks. Hulk rumbles in approval.

“The one and only!” Tony appears on the edge of the battle field, covered in black armor up to his neck, a cigarette in one hand, and a long black coat swirling in the breeze. 

“Why…?” Bruce and Hulk asks. 

“Kidnapping attempt! Ross is such an awful host, Brucie. I  _ so _ liked you better,” he answers. 

“Oh, you guys are looking for the wrong thing. Here… I got it.” the machinery Carol was monitoring the battle from begins to pick up something. 

“I’ve got a portal about fifteen feet down, one hundred feet off the pier,” Carol pipes up. “I don’t know what Stark did, but it’s helping.”

“Tony? An explanation would be nice,” Bruce and Hulk say as Tony joins the fray.

“Well… ya see, I kinda, sorta, can’t go back to jail, so if I could just get some reassurance, I’d be happy to help. More than I already am, anyways.”

“Steve? Carol?” Bruce asks. 

“Done,” their voices say, almost in unison.

“Great!” Tony says. He beheads a creature with a sword he had stowed under his coat. “To make a long story short, timelines are sorta delicate. Changing them on different levels results in different things. All of the things that happen are called events. What you ate for breakfast this morning? Event. Steve being found in the ice? Event.

“Now, some events, you can change as many times as you want.” 

Bruce puts his fist through a monsters mouth and right into its brain.

“And it won’t change shit. We call those minor events. Other stuff, if you change at all, will cause the timeline to completely split, which is why we had to take the infinity stones back. The timeline really likes it’s critical events to stay as it is, by the way, which brings us to our last category: events that affect things like the stones. Those are called major events. 

“Major events can’t be changed either. When they are, the timeline will temporarily split, and then rejoin later.” 

Bruce and Hulk duck a leaping monster, which sails over his head and lands on another one, the latch of it’s flower-mouth taking the meat out of its comrades shoulder.

“When it rejoins, what’s called the Reckoning will occur, in which the timeline will decide which version of the event is strongest, throw out the other, and will then adapt the rest of its events until a scenario in which the critical event happened exists. 

“And the monsters?” Bruce and Hulk asks as one hits him in the jaw hard enough to take out a tooth. He can already feel it growing back, and goddamn it’s a bitch.

“Are hungry! They get energy from creating new events in weak timelines, which is what we’re in now!”

“Guys, we think we figured out how to close the portal,” Carol says. 

“Do it quickly, please!” Hulk calls out. A missle drops from a passing jet,and a moment later,there's a small ripple under the water. The monsters, now down to sixty seven, do not receive any more back up. 

It still takes them another hour to kill the rest, and cleanup will take days. But, still, they lured the creatures away from people and into a construction zone that has only just been cleared, so there’s that. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Pepper makes an appearence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently I can't update on time. So: updates will be once a week, but that can be any day of the week.

The full counsel has been called into session for this one. Tony stands in the middle of the room, hands clasped loosely in front of him, feet spread, shoulders back. Just like he used to. His hair, wild and mused, makes him look like the barely-twenty-something Bruce had seen pictures of when he got curious one night. His eyes, however, twinkle with an intelligence no coked out kid would ever achieve, genius or no. 

“Mr. Stark,” Ramonda begins. Ross’ indecent behavior towards Tony has placed him on temporary, unpaid leave, with permanent dismissal looming large and likely in his future. He’s in hot water with the military, too. Other than that, the room is filled to bursting. 

“Queen-Mother Ramonda,” Tony says with a genial nod. 

“As much as the events up to this point need to be spoken of, it is safe to say it can be done at a later date. For now, you have my word that no one of this counsel will attempt an arrest, and until the current crisis is over, everyone else will also be staying their hands.” 

Tony pauses, as though thinking over the information. Then, his lips spread in a slow, easy grin.

“What an excellent decision. I suppose, since I don’t have to worry about any more pesky handcuffs, I could indulge you all and provide a little lesson in… well, not physics, but the way things work, yes?” Tony asks. Several heads nod in the stands, but most people remain quiet, suspicious and wary. 

“Well, without further ado…” Tony spreads his arms to encompass the whole of everything. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is your timeline. It’s made like a rope! Isn’t that fun?” Tony asks. No one moves. 

“As discussed before, the timeline… schisms temporarily, per say, when Major Events are changed. That is why I haven’t gone back and changed all sorts of things,” Tony practically sings with a sweet, poisonous smile on his face. Steve shifts uncomfortably in his seat. All these years, and he’s never been able to fully, totally, justify what he did to Tony. Not even to himself. 

“The Schism lines rejoin later down in the timeline. At that point, the line will decide which event is heavier, and choose that, then adjust each of its successive events so that the timeline will logically lead to the next Critical Event because, again, timelines do not like deviating from Critical Events. Ladies and gentlemen, we are in a Schism, and the Reckoning is just around the corner.”

“And the monsters?” Ramonda asks.

“They’re hungry,” Tony says. “Timelines make energy. A normal timeline is too strong for them to actually break into and consume, but Schism lines have weak branches, making it easier to go about eating.”

“So how do we fix it?” 

Tony takes a breath and looks around the audience, his eyes landing on Steve Rogers. It burns just like Steve remembers. 

“Someone has been playing with Time. That person has caused a Schism much earlier than this one, and that is what’s really attracting monsters, since the timeline will correct the first Schism, then the second. That person has to go back and stop themselves from doing whatever it is they want to do. At that point, another Reckoning will occur, and the original Major events will happen.” 

Steve sits forward, his voice, so much quieter now that he’s lived out his life, echoes around the chamber. 

“Is there any other way?” he questions. 

“No.”

“And if we don’t fix it?” Ramonda asks. “If the Schism just needs time to correct itself, then all we have to do is be on the lookout for these monsters and wait, yes?” she asks. There is pity in her eyes when she looks across the room at Steve, whose eyes are pinned to Tony’s face. Tony turns back to Ramonda. 

“They only get stronger from here on out. And once they get in deep enough, they just don’t stop. It’s like a cancer. They only need a deep enough foothold before they take over everything.”

“And you, Tony?” An achingly familiar voice asks. Tony’s face changes from the confident, flippant expression he’d had on the entire time to one of longing so strong and so devastating that, for a moment, Steve feels like he and Tony both stand to lose everything they want. Steve opens his mouth to say something- anything. To offer his help, whatever help he has left, to the grand and final goal of keeping what they have. Then Tony turns away. 

“I have to go, Pep,” he says. “I died. I really, genuinely died. There is no staying for me.”

Pepper is shaking her head as she steps closer.

“And Morgan? What about her?” 

Tony bows his head.

“Happy is an excellent man. He’s already making a great father. My options are to leave you and her to him, or destroy your entire world. I would make a massive schism. It would be good for a while, and then it would all fall apart.” 

Pepper is shaking her head, but steps forwards to hug Tony.

“I hate the things you do to me, sometimes.” 

Tony hides his face in her neck for just a moment, shutting out the world and all the watching eyes and the bright light of his problems. 

“So do I.”

A rumble echoes through the walls and the floor, and the emergency alarms blare them all up out of their seats. Tony turns away, automatically putting his body between Pepper and the door. 

“What is that?” Steve asks.

“Evacuate. The monsters are here.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which various people disapprove of various things

Steve goes with the rest of the evacuees, moving towards the emergency exits, hating every moment of his flight with his soul. He should be out there fighting. He should be protecting these people. But instead he’s put them in danger. 

_ Again _ , a sinister, Tony like voice reminds him. 

_ I know _ , Steve snarls back. In the red emergency lights and the simulated voices directing them towards the underground panic rooms, Steve hates all this. 

All he wanted to do was go be with Peggy and grow old with his friends. He deserves it. He’s done enough for this god-forsaken country. He just wants a little piece that’s all his.

Why is that too much to ask?

Why is what he wants  _ always _ too much to ask?

When the emergency lights cut off, and the strange, otherworldly screams of the monsters as they attack and die fall away, Steve shakes his head. There must be a way. There has to be a way. Tony always finds a way. 

It takes hours to be excavated. The evacuees- mostly non-combatants and other retirees who sit on the counsel, file out slowly. One by one, they’re guided through the rubble, and Steve, upon being left alone by the medics (finally), makes eye contact with Tony’s suit. 

The suit jerks its head, and Steve follows. 

“I can’t,” he says, when they’re alone. All around them is the remnants of the Accords building and the three on either side of it. They still don’t have a body count. 

“You have to,” Tony answers. “This? Only gets worse.” Tony waves a hand, encompassing the destruction around him. “We were able to contain a lot of the damage to the buildings they were already in. But next time, they’ll spread out. They’re attracted to you, but they’ll do whatever they want. They’re getting stronger, and they’re still starving, and now they’ve had a taste of something to eat. Are you telling me that your little… detour is worth everyone else’s lives?” Tony hisses at him. 

Steve opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. He has to keep Peggy. He can’t just let her go. She’s his best girl. 

“Of course,” Tony scoffed. “After all, you already got what you wanted. An America that doesn’t question you. A nice, cushy retirement. More control over other people than you had before. Aunt Peggy.”

Steve flinches. Aunt?

“And now, there’s nothing left for you. Just everyone you decided wasn’t worth it.”

“It’s not like that, To-”

“Smiley Face. That’s why the armor is decorated like so.” 

Steve hesitantly looks at the yellow design on the faceplate, styled to look spray painted. 

“Okay. Smiley Face. It’s not like that. It’s just… being in this century is not for me. I’m so lost here, and no amount of stuff is ever going to fix that. I can’t seem to fall in with the right people, so everytime I get some stability, it falls away again.”

“Alright let’s get one thing straight,” Tony cuts in before Steve can go on. “You threw it away. Every time. The offer of living in the Tower was open. For years. And you never took it up. You chose SHIELD, the guys who dropped you into another battle two weeks after you essentially lost everyone and everything and then gave you misinformation on your teammates to boot. Then you felt lost when SHIELD turned out to be Hydra.”

Steve opens his mouth to interrupt, but Tony plows on

“You didn’t even stay in the Tower after, either. It’s only because your funding got cut that you came to me, looking not for a home, but a hand-out. Stupid of me to give it to you. Then you chose… well. You just kept choosing and you know what Steve? I hoped one day you’d choose me. That you’d have the chance to draw further away or get closer, and you’d choose closer. But you didn’t . Instead you decided to lie. 

“Then, when everything blew up in your face, you left me there like I was the only one in the wrong. So yes, you have no stability, but that’s because you chose it. You made your choices. You made your bed.” Tony pauses, his anger stealing his voice for a moment. “You do not get to just… go back to the past because you don’t like it. You want stability? 

“Choose it. I will. I cannot let your lousy efforts kill everyone else off. You have to go back. This entire reality depends on you facing music you wrote and directed.” Tony swallows inside his helmet. Eyes shutting for a moment as he sees Morgan’s sweet little face demanding juice pops late at night. 

“My daughter shouldn’t die because you’re fucking dumb, Rogers. Go back. Fix it. Try again in the current time. You have as good a chance as you’re going to get. Use it.”

“You don’t know what it’s like to be alone in a new century-” Steve tries to argue. 

“Do you think I’m living with a dozen of my closest friends now? You think this isn’t a job I was sent out on? You think Pepper’s waiting at home, doing paperwork while I’m not there to distract her?”

“Fuck you, Steve,” Tony spits out. Then he says, quieter still. “I wish we’d never found you.” 

Tony turns and walks away before the full meaning of his words hits Steve like a punch from a heavy-weight champ. 

“Smiley Face!” he calls out. Some people look at him. A nurse moves closer. But Tony is gone. Too angry to continue the argument. 

As Steve carefully picks his way back over to the rest of the group, he avoids eye contact, a question echoing around in his head. 

Does everyone think that?

…

“What am I supposed to tell Morgan?” Pepper asks. “Daddy’s alive but he can’t see you?”

“No. She’s too far along in the grieving process. She’s just starting to level out again. Say nothing. When she’s grown, if she ever comes across this, which we have it on good authority that she won’t, we’ll tell her,” Happy answers. He and Pepper video are on a conference call, since Pepper was called to the Accords building and Happy stayed with Morgan. 

“He says he can’t come back. That what’s happening now will only get worse,” she says with a sigh. “I don’t. Why did it have to be him? Why couldn’t it be… I don’t want to say that someone else should have died, but he’s… he was only human, despite evidence to the contrary.”

“I don’t know. Tell him I love him, yeah? I gotta go. Morgan’s going to be up from her nap soon.” 

Pepper nods her head with a sigh. “Tell her mommy said hi. I’ll see you as soon as I can.” The screen goes dark as Happy signs off. Pepper sits back with a sigh. 

“If it’s any consolation, I am sorry,” Tony says. Pepper jumps. 

“You scared me.”

“I know. I’m… all I want to do is ask for a ride in your car, and go home and tell Morgan that I was very sick for a long time, and I’m all better now. But that can’t happen.” 

Pepper is nodding her head in understanding. She gets on her phone and pulls up a picture. 

“Her recital was last week. She… she’s gonna be great. Really loves dancing.”

Tony leans closer, staring intently at the screen like he can impart all his love on his daughter through the phone just by looking at it. 

“Amazing,” he murmurs. Pepper sighs. 

“I just can’t see myself not telling her for.. Potentially the rest of my life.” 

This time, it’s Tony’s turn to shake his head. 

“No. Just long enough for the Reckoning. When the timeline chooses the event it wants, the other will cease to exist. It will be like I was never here. You only have to stay quiet for a little while.”

Somehow, Pepper just looks sadder. She lets out a sigh. 

“I know how we got to this point, Tony, but I don’t understand why it had to happen to us.” Pepper sits across from Tony, back in front of her coffee cup, and puts her head in her hands. 

“Neither do I. But I know we’ll be alright,” Tony says.

“And if Steve decides to not go back? If he just… chooses himself over everyone else?”

“Then I will make it alright.” 

Pepper goes still, eyes on Tony’s solemn expression, and wonders what fresh hell he’d raise to “make it alright”.

...

Steve’s retreated from everyone. There isn’t a single person who is content to just let him be right now, and Steve can’t take it. He can’t stand their eyes. Their anger and their judgement. Their anything. 

So he’s retreated to the roof of the permanent civilian employee dorm, or PCED, for short. And that’s where Bucky finds him. 

“Never thought you’d be content to live like this,” Bucky muses. He’s right, in a way. 

PCEs, which Steve qualifies as, have less access to things like the Training Gym (not to be confused with the General Gym), some of the programs of the public computer terminals, the Permanent Extra-Human Dorms (PEHD, which is where Bucky lives now), and other things. While protocols are equally as strict for both humans and Extra-Skilled (the catch all word for anyone non-garden-variety human), it’s been hard getting used to how much… less he can do now. 

The last time he lived here, he could go anywhere. Do anything. But now he’s old, and he’s past his time as an Extra-Skilled. He has to content himself with the things that every other normal person can do. Which is garden out back of the dorms, and practice emergency evacuation protocols as an evacuee. And yet-

“It’s peaceful. No more fighting. No more…” Tony, and his infernal meddling, “well. I think I’ve done my time.”

“Have you, though? I mean, in not too long now, the Reckoning will start, won’t it?” Bucky asks. Steve nods. 

“But it will be okay. The Reckoning doesn’t mean the timeline ceases to exist. It means that the seperate branches will consolidate into one. We’ll all still be here,” Steve explains. “I’ll just be old. It’ll be okay, Buck. Just wait and see.”

The two fall into tense silence as Bucky watches the sun begins to set over the Compound. “You know, that’s not how it was explained to me,” Bucky finally answers. Steve lets out an inaudible sigh. 

“How was it explained to you?” 

“The timeline wants the critical events to happen. So when it reconciles it’s original split event and chooses which one actually happened, it will then redo itself so that the logical consequences of what it chose reaches the next critical event. And the fact of the matter is, you would have been too old for New York. More than that, the Cube would have been in the possession of SHIELD, which we already know is Hydra, this entire time. Something will have to happen to stop them from using it, too,” Bucky notes.

“It’s okay, Buck. I kept Peggy from trying to use it or learn more about it. It’s fine.”

“But it isn’t, Steve. That’s what you don’t get. When the Reckoning comes, you’ll lose your memories and won’t remember being here in the first place. In the reconciled line, you won’t have the knowledge of the future to stop Peggy from using the cube, because that timeline says you were never in this century.”

Steve’s mouth tightens at Bucky’s explanation. The sunset isn’t that pretty anymore. 

“And I know it won’t matter in a few weeks or however long it will take for all of this to be over, but did you even come back for me?” Bucky asks. Steve turns to look at him alarmed, and gets caught in the icy blue stare of his once-and-future friend. “Or did you just… leave me. For seventy years. To Hydra.” 

The words don’t come immediately, but when they do-

“I knew you’d make it out. And I didn’t know where to begin.” 

Bucky laughs. “You know, Steve, you always were kinda selfish, but that’s low, even for you.”

“It wasn’t like that!” Steve blurts out. “I swear! I just didn’t know where to begin and-”

“And fuck everybody but you. Right. Got that loud and clear.”

“No! Not ‘fuck-”

“Yes ‘fuck’, Steve. I kinda figured that somewhere, deep in that head of your’s, everything you’ve done is for what you thought was right. Even if that thought was dead wrong, at least you tried, right? But now I know that’s a lie. I know.” The words get choked up in Bucky’s throat. 

“You probably came for me originally because you felt you had to but after? You must have just kept me around because you felt like you owned me.” 

Steve is shaking his head, face twisted in grief and denial. 

“Go away, Steve. Have a nice life. Here’s to hoping I keep mine,” Bucky tosses out as he walks away. And Steve is stuck there, with his limited permissions heart breaking in a million pieces. He thought he’d be able to console his grief at Peggy’s recent death with Bucky, but now even he has abandoned him. What has Steve done?


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Reckoning reaches the current time.

Despite being the foremost authority on “weird shit”, as Stark once said, people rarely call Dr. Strange before things are well and truly fucked. As such, Stephen was not called in to deal with any of the monsters, despite the fact that they qualified as the quintessential “weird shit” the Accords Counsel want him to bippity-boppity-boo away all the time. Probably because Stephen is actually an “independent contractor” as much as one can be in the superhero game . It actually costs them to have him waltzing around, bippity boppity booing. 

Or some such nonsense like that. 

So Stephen isn’t overly surprised to have been, well, kept out of the loop. Either way, he’s practically thrust into the situation when he returns to his room in the New York Sanctum, tired and worn out after seeing to various magical mishaps that were all simple, yet weirdly difficult to handle. Sitting on his bed, as though it had never left, is the Eye of Agamotto, embedded with the timestone. 

“Oh,” Stephen breathes. He picks up the necklace, as heavy as it always was, and holds it up to the light. Stephen tries to think back over the various escapades he’d been filled in on from the five years he was gone, and he tries to remember what all happened when Dumbo and Friends went back in time, but there is absolutely nothing that would have ensured the Time Stone’s survival. 

Which means that something else happened. Quickly, Stephen opens a portal to the Compound and charges through it. He rounds the side of the building, headed to the front door. He stops short at the sight of a relatively short man, leaning up against the white wall outside the building, a cigarette in hand, smoke blowing away in the breeze. He’s about thirty years younger than he used to be, has dark hair, and a far too distinctive beard. 

“Oh fuck,” Stephen says. Tony looks at him, one eyebrow cocked up above the rim of his sunglasses. 

“Oh fuck is right. What brings you by?” 

Stephen holds up the Eye of Agamotto mutely. Tony nods his head as though the sight does not surprise him. 

“So it begins. Let’s go inside. There’s someone who needs to see this.”

Inside, as it turns out, is much, much louder than outside. 

The majority of the people living in the Compound have gathered in one of the spacious living rooms. They’re arguing amongst themselves, everyone talking at once. The center of the group seems to be an old man in a tan jacket. He’s hunched over, elbows on his knees and hands up around his face as his gaze flicks from person to person. It’s clear that whatever they’re arguing about involves him. 

“What the hell…?” Stephen asks. The old man, now that Stephen is really looking at him, is Steve Rogers. 

“Meet the bane of your existence,” Tony says quietly. “Or at least your current one. When tasked with returning the Stones, Mr. Rogers here decided to stay in the past, despite all the fuckery he knew would happen if he did something like that. Time is correcting itself so that only one reality exists per moment. If the Time Stone exists, then the Reckoning has reached the here and now.

“He has to go back,” Stephen breathes. The two men watch Clint get red in the face. 

“And only he can do that. But so far he’s decided that whatever changes to the timeline are worth it if he just gets his “best gal”. I guess her niece didn’t really live up to his shiny, glorified memories of Peggy,” Tony explains. 

All noise in the room suddenly comes to a halt when Clint yells out: 

“MY DAUGHTER IS GONE!”

Stephen looks from Steve’s anguished face, to Tony’s bemusement, to Clint’s boiling rage. Hulk stands partially in front of Steve, trying to keep him from getting punched in the face. Bucky is off to the side, arms wrapped around himself like he’s trying to protect himself from the vitriol and the arguments. He looks resigned and sad. 

“And the Timestone is back,” Stephen jumps in, holding up the Eye. Steve’s face seems to open up. 

“Then it can’t be all bad! If the Time Stone is back, we can find out what went wrong with your past, Clint, and fix that!”

“Or you could just stop throwing away the rest of us like we’re fucking tools you don’t want anymore and go back-”

“Actually, it’s not that simple,” Tony answers. 

“What do you mean?” Steve asks. 

“The Timestone being back is actually a horrible thing. There is a Critical Event in which half the universe was discorporated and a second in which the stone was destroyed. If that Stone is in Stephen’s hands, it means that we will be living in a reality in which the Snap and the subsequent Un-Snap happen farther along in the line. How many of you want to bet on being able to defeat Thanos a second time, on the first go round, without any of the knowledge you currently possess, working with a completely different team?” Tony asks. 

Tony turns his head and looks directly at Bucky. 

“And without some of our people.” 

“What’s happening?” Bucky asks, a thread of panic in his normally monotone voice. Stephen can see the wall behind him.

“What happens when Captain America isn’t there for the Fall of SHIELD, is my guess,” Tony muses, his mouth quirking up at the edges. 

“No… no that’s not supposed to happen! You’re gonna be okay, Buck!” Steve says as he forces himself to his feet and moves closer. Bucky reels back, betrayal in his eyes. 

“Please fix this,” he says as he fades away entirely.

“I wonder if Project Insight will go through,” Tony muses. “It couldn’t have, otherwise most of us would already be gone. Maybe at a later date.”

“Tony! Tony,” Steve says, turning towards Tony and Stephen. “Anything. Anything but that to make this all go away.” 

For a moment, it seems Tony will be compassionate about Steve’s plight. He takes Steve’s hand from where it’s outstretched and smiles softly at him. 

“You can’t cheat time Steve. Either you fix this, or this will fix you.” 

Steve closes his eyes and bows his head. Stephen wonders if Steve is praying before blue eyes lock on brown. 

“What do I have to do?” 

Behind Steve, Bruce and Hulk shrink down to just Bruce.

…

They set up the time machine in the backyard like it’s five years ago. Tony stands off to the side, hands in his pockets. He’s near enough to Bruce for the two to talk, but they just stand in silence for a while. Steve stands facing the sunset, quietly mourning all he’s about to lose. 

“I don’t believe you, you know,” Bruce says as he finishes running the last checks on the machine.

“Believe what?” Tony asks. 

“That you needed Steve’s help,” Bruce answers. 

“Oh, of course not. What kind of undead, dimension hopping, professional Time-Traveler would I be if I needed the help of one idiot to fix my home line?” Tony asks. Bruce can’t help but smile a little bit. 

“Then why are you here?” 

Tony shrugs a shoulder. “Statistically speaking, if he didn’t learn his lesson, he’s actually likely to try again, even though he won’t remember said lesson. And more importantly, I don’t take kindly to people throwing away the entire world’s sacrifice because he can’t move on.” Bruce stops what he’s doing and turns to look at Tony. 

“You’re angry.”

“Furious,” Tony answers. Then he smiles beautifically again, and the clouds across his face go away. “But I saw my chance to teach a little lesson in consequences, so it’s not that bad anymore.” 

Bruce shakes his head, even though he privately agrees. 

“Take care of yourself, big guy,” Tony says as Steve moves into the center of their time travelling portal. “I’m glad you finally learned to strut.” Tony joins Steve, and in another couple of moments, the two are gone. 

…

“What do I do now?” Steve asks. He and Tony are standing around the corner from the plane hangar. In a moment, both Steves will get on the plane. The second Steve is going to coach Steve through how to land a plane, leading to a rough, but ultimately decent, landing. 

“Catch your second self. Tell them whatever you have to to get them to let things happen the way they should. The timeline will take care of itself from there.” 

“Catch your second self. Tell them whatever you have to to get them to let things happen the way they should. The timeline will take care of itself from there.” 

“Why isn’t this event fixed already if the Reckoning has already begun?” Steve asks. Tony shrugs his shoulder. 

“The timeline will try out scenarios until it finds the one it wants. The actual fixing of the timeline is nearly instantaneous, and will be marked by a loss of memories of the discarded line. You’re up. Remember Steve: if you don’t fix it, I will,” Tony says. He smiles sweetly at the old man next to him. 

“You always have to have it your way, don’t you, Tony?” Steve asks, disapproval in his face. Tony smiles at him. 

“You’ve proved over and over again that there is not working with you, Steve. Only working you. Go on. Do your part. Wouldn’t want to hurt anyone by being so selfish, after all.” 

Steve reaches for his belt, ready to call the whole thing off and finds his particles missing. 

“All you’re doing is making sure you leave the timeline alone, Steve. Don’t make me do it for you.”

Hot with shame and anger and out of time to get his back up, Steve walks out into the hallway, ready to intercept the second iteration of himself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late, guys. the next chapter will be up later this week.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final stage of the Reckoning is when the timeline, having decided on the version that both allows for the Critical Events to happen, then enacts those events. It is almost instantaneous.

Pepper stands at the foot of Tony’s grave, drinking her coffee and shivering slightly in the early morning air. There’s movement behind her, and then her favorite shawl is laying itself across her shoulders.

“You forget this every time,” Happy says as he joins her. They’re dressed in their work attire today; Pepper has to go into the office, Happy is going to be driving. Morgan is staying with Peter. 

“I miss him so much. I. It hurt to see him, but I can’t help but be happy he’s not dead, dead, even if he can’t come home.” 

Happy nods his agreement and wraps an arm around her waist. Pepper tucks into him like she always belonged there.

“He deserves some happiness.”

Pepper stands at the foot of Tony’s grave, drinking her coffee and shivering slightly in the morning air. There’s movement behind her, and then her favorite shawl is laying itself across her shoulders. 

“You forget this every time,” Happy says as he joins her. They’re dressed in their work attire today; Pepper has t go into the office, Happy is going to be driving. Morgan is staying home with Peter. 

“It’s been a year and a half and I’m just now starting to come to terms with all of… this,” Pepper says. Happy nods. Tony Stark, regardless of how he was hurting or helping other people, always left a massive hole whenever he went. “I feel so guilty. I have to watch the videos to remember what he looked and sounded like, now.”

“He’d want you to be happy.”

“He wouldn’t want to be forgotten.” 

Happy can do nothing but tuck Pepper under his arm like she always belonged there. Pepper has to come to terms with this on her own, and all he can do is be there if things go bad. 

…

Steve Rogers’ alarm goes off at seven in the morning. He doesn’t wake up as early as he used to. There’s no reason. He eases his legs off the bed and stands; being old requires more caution than he thought it would. 

Steve Rogers’ alarm goes off at six in the morning. He overslept by half an hour and he needs to get moving. 

…

Stephen Strange steps through a portal and collapses directly into bed, hands throbbing and needles shooting through the damaged tendons. Sometimes his hands ache so badly he could cry. He turns his head to look at the empty socket where the Eye of Agamotto once was and sees a familiar bright green gem.

He eventually focuses on the empty Eye of Agamotto. It’s times like this where he wishes he could just. Turn it all back. But the Timestone is gone. Just like his surgeon days. 

…

Bruce and Hulk sit up in their large bed, a vague sense of nausea welling up in his throat. He thought he was smaller a moment ago. 

…

Tony stands on a sunlit knoll of grass, smoking a cigarette and watching the world go by. 

“Quite a lot of drama for one event,” his friend says. Tony offers him the carton and lighter. 

“Well, as per orders, I got the job done, didn’t I?” Tony asks. He takes the carton back from his friend. 

“Besides, I think you had it worse, what with having to relive most of the awful things in your life,” Tony goes on. 

“I had more fun on Sakaar this time around, though.”

“That you did.” 

“It’s funny,” the friend says as they turn and begin to make their way into the trees behind them. “I didn’t take you for the smoking type.”

“I wasn’t, before. Used to hate the stuff. It was more or less a reaction to Obie and his… well. His everything, really. Now it’s just stress relief.”

The friend catches Tony’s hand in his as the last of the ash goes out and they begin to disappear. 

“I can’t imagine a more stressful job than this one, really, and I’ve had them all.”

The pretty trees and sun lit plants fade to crisp white walls and smooth, clean lines. The pair surrender their butts to a waiting attendant and seperate. 

“Thanks for being my magic, Loki,” Tony says as he sets aside his little vial of pym particles.

“Thank you for being mine.”

END

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments and constructive criticism are appreciated.
> 
> If you guys want something written, head on over to The Prompt Box and drop me a comment :)


End file.
